Species
+

Tagetes erecta L.

African Marigold, African marigold, American marigold, Aztec marigold

Climate known 55 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Tagetes erecta, the Aztec marigold, Mexican marigold, big marigold, cempaxochitl or cempasúchil, is a species of flowering plant in the genus Tagetes native to Mexico and Central America. Despite being native to the Americas, it is often called the African marigold. In Mexico, this plant is found in the wild in the states of México, Michoacán, Puebla, Veracruz and Guerrero.

Text from Wikipedia, “Tagetes erecta”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Tagetes

Tagetes is a genus of 50 species of annual or perennial, mostly herbaceous plants in the family Asteraceae. They are among several groups of plants known in English as marigolds. The genus Tagetes was formally named by Carl Linnaeus in 1753. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Tagetes”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Asteraceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf +4
Wild records
490 in range· 379 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
May, mean day; nights 16 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1180mm/yr
8 wet months · peak Sep 229 mm (CHELSA)
Light
29–45DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a summer growing season, June to September in the northern hemisphere (June to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1180 mm a year, wettest September at 229 mm, driest March at 12 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 29 to 45 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 7.7 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Tagetes corymbosa Sweet; Tagetes elongata Willd.; Tagetes erecta f. erecta; Tagetes erecta f. pleniflora Moldenke; Tagetes erecta subsp. erecta and 13 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, June to September in the northern hemisphere (June to September at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (882 mm of 1180 mm) falls in June to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 20.9 °C against a yearly mean of 19.5 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to March.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1180 mm a year, wettest September at 229 mm, driest March at 12 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1180 mm a year at the habitat, 882 mm of it June to September. Wettest month September at 229 mm, driest March at 12 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 617 mm to 2038 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 29 to 45 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 29 to 45 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 23, the highest 90th-percentile month 48).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 7.7 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 7.7 °C, the absolute minimum 3.7 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.3 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 10.5 °C in January (across the envelope cells 5.4 °C to 19.0 °C), warmest day 28.1 °C in May (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 7.7 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 53 to 67% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 22 °C in Jan to 28 °C in May; mean night from 11 °C in Jan to 17 °C in Jun. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1180 mm of rain a year, most in Sep. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 409 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 3.7 °C and the 99th-percentile day 36.3 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°20°30°40°36.3° 99th-percentile day (undated)3.7° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 29–45RH 53–67 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 409 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C22 / 18–2924 / 19–3126 / 21–3228 / 23–3428 / 23–3426 / 21–3325 / 20–3225 / 20–3224 / 20–3124 / 19–2923 / 19–2923 / 18–29
Night °C11 / 5–1911 / 6–2012 / 7–2114 / 9–2316 / 10–2417 / 11–2416 / 11–2416 / 11–2416 / 11–2415 / 9–2213 / 7–2111 / 6–20
Rain mm23 / 9–6415 / 8–5612 / 4–5326 / 5–7973 / 23–144203 / 104–331225 / 115–342225 / 110–331229 / 111–376111 / 47–23025 / 11–10113 / 5–64
DLI31 / 24–3437 / 29–3943 / 35–4545 / 39–4843 / 39–4737 / 34–4137 / 33–4137 / 33–4033 / 30–3532 / 28–3431 / 26–3429 / 23–32
RH %55 / 49–6754 / 47–6653 / 45–6453 / 44–6456 / 49–6563 / 58–6964 / 59–6965 / 60–6967 / 61–7164 / 58–6959 / 53–6857 / 50–67

Each figure is the median across the 409 grid cells holding the 480 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1413:1591 (19.325, -100.425). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 3.7 °C, 1st-percentile night 7.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.3 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 409 distinct grid cells holding the 480 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1413:1591 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 19.50_-100.625, lapse-corrected -306 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1509 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeMexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Guatemala· introduced: Great Britain, Ireland, Norway, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Baleares, France, Portugal, Spain, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Romania, Sicilia, Yugoslavia, Belarus, Baltic States, Krym, South European Russia, Ukraine, Morocco, Tunisia, Canary Is., Cape Verde, Madeira, Benin, Guinea, Cameroon, Gulf of Guinea Is., Zaïre, Chad, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Northern Provinces, Mauritius, Réunion, Rodrigues, Altay, Tuva, West Siberia, Primorye, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Tadzhikistan, Uzbekistan, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, East Aegean Is., Oman, Korea, Taiwan, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Laccadive Is., Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, West Himalaya, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Jawa, Philippines, Fiji, Niue, Cook Is., Pitcairn Is., Tubuai Is., Caroline Is., Marianas, Marshall Is., Wyoming, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont, California, Utah, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Cayman Is., Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Windward Is., Guyana, Surinam, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Galápagos, Peru
Kew's description“annual” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker18.557, -99.121 · in the densest population, 294 records (60% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 490 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 379 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 13 km away. 1231 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 10 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 490 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Tagetes erectaTagetes erectaTagetes erectaTagetes erectaTagetes erectaTagetes erectaTagetes erectaTagetes erecta

Photographs: (c) Ricardo Betancourt Sánchez, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Алёна Осипова, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Yurii Basov, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Carlos Domínguez-Rodríguez, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Tagetes erecta, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Green synthesis of silver nanoparticles from marigold flower and its synergistic antimicrobial potential
Hemali Padalia, Pooja Moteriya, Sumitra Chanda (2014) · Arabian Journal of Chemistry
Cytotoxicity screening of essential oils in cancer cell lines
Pollyanna Francielli de Oliveira, Jacqueline Morais Alves, Jaqueline Lopes Damasceno, Renata Aparecida Machado Oliveira (2015) · Revista Brasileira de Farmacognosia
Anti-Aging Potential of Phytoextract Loaded-Pharmaceutical Creams for Human Skin Cell Longetivity
Saima Jadoon, Sabiha Karim, Muhammad Hassham Hassan Bin Asad, Muhammad Rouf Akram (2015) · Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity
Nutritional Composition and Antioxidant Capacity in Edible Flowers: Characterisation of Phenolic Compounds by HPLC-DAD-ESI/MSn
INMACULADA NAVARRO-GONZÁLEZ, Rocío González‐Barrio, Verónica García‐Valverde, Ana Belén Bautista‐Ortín (2014) · International Journal of Molecular Sciences
Alleviation of drought stress of marigold (Tagetes erecta) plants by using arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi
A. A. Asrar, Khalid M. Elhindi (2010) · Saudi Journal of Biological Sciences
Carotenoid Composition of Marigold ( Tagetes erecta ) Flower Extract Used as Nutritional Supplement
W. Leigh Hadden, Ruth H. Watkins, Luis W. Levy, Edmundo Regalado (1999) · Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Tagetes 4 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 228 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.